According to a report in The Irish Times by Conor Lally
Latest CSO report identifies decline in reported crimes but also questions reliability of data
There were just over 14,000 burglaries and related offences recorded in the first six months of 2015 and just over 9,000 in the first six months of 2016.
A major Garda clampdown on prolific burglary gangs has seen a huge fall in the number of break-ins across the State in the first half of the year. (2016)
However, it has also been revealed that almost one in five crimes reported to the Garda last year was not recorded as a crime on the force’s computerised PULSE database.
And one third of crimes committed last year that the Garda was satisfied it had detected resulted in no action against the suspect.
It means gardaí believed they knew the identity of the person who carried out the crime and had marked the crime as detected, or solved, but nobody had been charged.
In many cases while Garda members believe they know who carried out a crime there is not enough evidence to begin a prosecution.
The new information on crime trends in the first half of this year and on the quality of the crime statistics recorded by the Garda last year are contained in separate reports released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Wednesday.
There was no overall detection rate available for all of the crimes the Garda investigates.
However, the CSO said of the crimes marked as detected by the Garda, 37 per cent had no charges or summonses attached, meaning not prosecution had begun.
The latest crime stastics show that burglaries fell by 26 per cent in the 12-month period to the end of June compared with the corresponding period last year.
When burglary rates for the first six months of this year are compared with the first six months of last year, the decrease is 36 per cent.
There were just over 14,000 burglaries and related offences recorded in the first six months of 2015 and just over 9,000 in the first six months of 2016
